Second Stanza - Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" “Be﻿ware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” (Carroll, "Jabberwocky" 932) Portmanteau In contrast to the first stanza of the poem, the second stanza does not contain nearly as much portmanteaus. The only case of this is in the last line of this stanza where the Bandersnatch is described as 'fruminous'. Martin Gardner, the editor of The Annotated Alice, an annotated edition of Carroll's two works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, wrote in a preface in the book that 'fruminous' is the "perfectly balanced" mind's way of combining fuming and furious (Carroll 195). In the context of the poem, the main character is being warned of various creatures, one of which is the Bandersnatch.

Fruminous works well to describe the beast because the message trying to be communicated is that the Bandersnatch is dangerous and that is exactly what is portrayed. The appearance of this particular creature is not described, but that is not too important because the vital information is simply that it should be avoided. Alliteration In the second line there is a phrase that reads "claws that catch!" and this is an example of alliteration. This is so because the first and last word both start with the letter c and make the 'kuh' sound. This alliteration can be seen on two levels; one is that Carroll used this repeating sound to make the sentence more audibly appealing to the reader and to make the line more memorable, or you can see it simply as the man in the poem's way of painting a memorable and vivid warning in the form of a picture so that the boy that he is talking to remembers to stay away from the Jabberwock. Imagery Similar to the Bandersnatch, the Jabberwock is not described in detail either.

The Jabberwock is given two defining traits in this stanza, and they are "jaws that bite" and "claws that catch." The poem only gives these few traits because they are something that are easy to envision and because they can be easily transplanted from imaginary creature to imaginary creature. Negative Capability Negative capability is when an author or poet purposely leaves information out of a piece of literature so that the audience can make their own assumptions about the piece. In this stanza it is used three times. The first time it is used is when describing the Jabberwock because a detailed description is lacking and only its claws and jaws are specified. It is done this way because with only these specifications every reader can picture a different beast making the poem more of an enjoyable read. The second time that it is used is when describing the Jubjub bird because no description is given at all. This may have been done because the bird plays no other role in the poem, but the poem also gives the reader full creative control on how they wish to see the bird. The third and final time in this stanza is for the Bandersnatch. The only information that is given is that it's furious, fuming, and should be avoided.

In this case, as long as the reader pictures the creature as angry, there is no wrong way to picture it. Create a free website Jabberwocky JABBERWOCKY Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There , 1872) `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Urban Dictionary: jabberwock ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. “And, hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. “And, hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. By Lewis Caroll Jabberwock 1. n. a fictional monster appearing in the poem " Jabberwocky " by Lewis Carroll.

In the poem, a "beamish boy" slays the Jabberwock by beheading it. The Jabberwock is described as having "eyes of flame", living in a "tulgey wood" and "whiffling" and "burbling" as as it moves. John Tenniel, the original illustrator of the poem, drew the Jabberwock as a bipedal anthropomorphic dragon creature with a long, bending neck, a sucker-like mouth with four comically large and flat incisors, two barbels and two antennae, a fringe of long white whiskers, large hairy talon-like hands (with a thumb and three fingers each) and humanlike feet (with three toes each), pupil- and iris-less eyes, two black wings, a long tail, and a waistcoat. 2. n. made-up words, such as those used by Lewis Carroll in the poem "Jabberwocky". 3. n. a text which exemplifies such made-up words, such as "Jabberwocky", "The Owl and the Pussycat", and everything by Dr. Seuss . 4. n. any nonsense or gibberish.

1) The creature is called a "Jabberwock", not a "Jabberwocky". Sorry, Tim Burton. 2) When I read Dr. Seuss I sometimes get confused by all the jabberwock. 3) "The Owl and the Pussycat", from which we have derive the word " runcible spoon ", is a famous jabberwock. 4) Shut your jabberwock! I'm trying to study. Jabberwock Physiology | Superpower Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Jabberwock Mimicry Capabilities User with this ability either is or can transform into a Jabberwock , a creature from a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll, described as having a terrible bite and claws and being very difficult to kill. The Jabberwock is often described as a large dragon-like being, with "the leathery wings of a pterodactyl and the long scaly neck and tail of a sauropod", usually with a rather bizarre or horrid face. However, the sparseness of details has raised several differing variations, both in appearance and abilities.

Some forms of The Jabberwock may even be physical manifestations of guilt or fear. Note that Jabberwocky is the poem, while Jabberwock is the creature itself. Applications Non-Sense Poetry and The Parody: A Reflection of Beowulf in The Jabberwocky - The Tales of an Anthropomorphic Cat Wed, Nov. 2nd, 2005, 09:34 pm Non-Sense Poetry and The Parody: A Reflection of Beowulf in The Jabberwocky I have delayed writing on The Jabberwocky, because I wanted to create a post dealing with both that poem and Beowulf. The aim of this post is to provide some evidence for the point I made in tutorial about Non-sense Poetry being more than fun, but rather, in the case of The Jabberwocky, a mockery of Old English epic poems, such as Beowulf (a point I didn't mention in class, because I needed more time to think of it). I have read the entirety of Beowulf twice and I have become familiar with a few scenes.

Not within the section available in our Norton Anthology of Poetry is the end of the Beowulf poem in which Beowulf battles with the dragon. When I read The Jabberwocky I was immediately reminded of this scene and since I hold Old English poetry in such high regard, I was alarmed by Lewis Carroll's (perhaps innocent) use the serious epic tradition in his intentionally silly poem. Firstly, I don't want any confusion. As I have said before, I respect the work of all authors and I do not intend to discredit Carroll in any way, I am only sharing my interpretation of his poem. I also understand that there is in fact seriousness involved with non-sense poetry and that is the serious way in which an author of non-sense poetry creates their own world, with elaborate rules and maintains them. But this is not the seriousness I speak of, but rather the adopting of a serious genre, mimicking a serious poem and labeling it non-sense. Returning to my argument, when one adapts a story from its serious nature to a form of non-sense, namely, silliness, the author may be thought of as mocking the serious story.

Looking at the definition of mockery, "scornfully contemptuous ridicule; derision" (dictionary.com), I've grown concerned that I am using too strong a word here. I don't believe Carroll was acting out of contempt or with the aim of ridiculing the epic genre, but rather making a parody. Defined, a parody is "A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule" (dictionary.com). This word definitely suits my argument better. Presently I would like to provide some textual proof for the similarities between The Jabberwocky and Beowulf. Here is The Jabberwocky courtesy of `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

This is chapter XXXVI of Beowulf, which I have retrieved from ~beow It is the scene in which Beowulf kills the dragon: Through slaughter-reek strode he to succor his chieftain, his battle-helm bore, and brief words spake:-- "Beowulf dearest, do all bravely, as in youthful days of yore thou vowedst that while life should last thou wouldst let no wise thy glory droop! Now, great in deeds, atheling steadfast, with all thy strength shield thy life! I will stand to help thee." At the words the worm came once again, murderous monster mad with rage, with fire-billows flaming, its foes to seek, the hated men. In heat-waves burned that board4 to the boss, and the breastplate failed to shelter at all the spear-thane young. Yet quickly under his kinsman's shield went eager the earl, since his own was now all burned by the blaze. The bold king again had mind of his glory: with might his glaive was driven into the dragon's head, -- blow nerved by hate.

But Naegling5 was shivered, broken in battle was Beowulf's sword, old and gray. 'Twas granted him not that ever the edge of iron at all could help him at strife: too strong was his hand, so the tale is told, and he tried too far with strength of stroke all swords he wielded, though sturdy their steel: they steaded him nought. Then for the third time thought on its feud that folk-destroyer, fire-dread dragon, and rushed on the hero, where room allowed, battle-grim, burning; its bitter teeth closed on his neck, and covered him with waves of blood from his breast that welled. This continues in chapter XXXVII: TWAS now, men say, in his sovran's need that the earl made known his noble strain, craft and keenness and courage enduring. Heedless of harm, though his hand was burned, hardy-hearted, he helped his kinsman. A little lower the loathsome beast he smote with sword; his steel drove in bright and burnished; that blaze began to lose and lessen.

At last the king wielded his wits again, war-knife drew, a biting blade by his breastplate hanging, and the Weders'-helm smote that worm asunder, felled the foe, flung forth its life. So had they killed it, kinsmen both, athelings twain: thus an earl should be in danger's day! A great summary of these sections is found on ~beow ulf/main.html . This may be of help to those reading this for the first time, it is as follows: Entering the smoke, *Wiglaf called out to *Beowulf to fight for his life, for he had arrived to help. Hearing the words, the dragon was again enraged and he let fly his breath of fire. The flames quickly consumed *Wiglaf's wooden shield and his mail shirt would serve no protection. He quickly entered to cover of the iron shield. *Beowulf, aware of assistance, stuck out with *Naegling and struck the dragon on the head, but the sword broke. *Beowulf had simply been too strong for swords to be of great use to him.

For the third time the dragon struck at *Beowulf and succeded in biting him about the neck and the blood welled about his breast. When his lord needed him most, *Wiglaf struck. He attacked the dragon away from the flaming head where his hand had already been burnt. Lower on the neck his blow penetrated the hide and the dragon's fire began to lessen. Still conscious, *Beowulf drew a war-knife and struck at the dragon down the middle. Two noble kinsmen killed the dragon together. After reading the poems one after the other, the similarities between them are apparent. Cleary the story is not exactly the same, but there are a few key details that are similar: -the hero is fighting against a giant lizard-like monster (in Beowulf it is in fact a dragon) In The Jabberwocky the creature is described as a "Jubjub bird ", as having "jaws that bite" and "claws that catch!" and as having "eyes of flame".

In Beowulf the dragon is described as a "worm", a "murderous monster mad with rage, with fire-billows flaming" and as acting "where room allowed, battle-grim, burning; its bitter teeth closed on his neck (of Beowulf)". Common to both descriptions is the reference to flames and biting jaws and most importantly the creatures are affiliated with the bird and worm which lead one to reptile/lizard-like images and to the conclusion that both are a sort of dragon. -both creatures are killed by a sword of mystical quality. In The Jabberwocky it is a "vorpal blade" while in Beowulf it is a sword so special that it has its own name, "Naegling", although in this case Naegling only aids in the battle, not in the final blow, when a simply war-knife is used. -both characters are encouraged to be cautious, yet brave by a loved one before engaging in battle. In The Jabberwocky the warning is given by a father, while in Beowulf it is by Wiglaf, Beowulf's kinsman. What do these similarites prove? For some, maybe nothing.

But for me, it is enough to say that The Jabberwocky is written in parody of the epic tradition and perhaps even in the reflection of the epic dragon scene in Beowulf. Why a parody? Simply because it is written in a non-sense style, whereby the setting is familiar and common to the epic genre (go here [ rch?q=epic]for a description of the epic), but the vocabulary and characters are contrary to want most would consider to make sense and thus are not true to the nature of the epic. And, yes, I do believe this parody is made in good fun, not with the intention to ridicule or mock, but that fact doesn't negate the fact that The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll may indeed be a parody modelled after the epic tale of Beowulf. Carroll only knows. So, have I convinced anyone? Janice Jabberwocky - Lewis Carroll "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arm, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe (Carroll, The Annotated Alice, 191-97). "It seems very pretty," [Alice] said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand! ... Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas--only I don't exactly know what they are!" (Carroll, The Annotated Alice, 197). Alice's reaction to Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" is relatively typical. Few people understand what the poem is about. "...Somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate--," Alice continues (Carroll, The Annotated Alice, 197). After all, what is a Jabberwock anyway, and how, exactly, does one chortle or galumph? How is it that a poem can be full of nonsense, and seemingly devoid of meaning, but still sound like proper English? The answer to these questions lies in Carroll's unique ability to manipulate language.

"Jabberwocky" first appeared in Mischmasch, a magazine written both by and for the Carroll family, in 1855 when Carroll was 23. Titled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry," it went like this: Twas Bryllyg, and ye slythy toves Did gyre and gymble in ye wabe: All mimsy were ye borogoves; And ye mome raths outgrabe (Martin Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 191). Carroll later expanded and revised the spelling of his poem for inclusion in Looking-Glass. He gave the following as the literal English of the passage. "It was evening, and the smooth active badgers were scratching and boring holes in the hill-side; all unhappy were the parrots; and the grave turtles squeaked out" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 192). Before incorporating "Jabberwocky" into Looking-Glass, however, Carroll apparently changed his mind as to what some of his words should mean, for when Alice discusses the poem with Humpty Dumpty later in the book, he gives somewhat different interpretations.

"That's enough to begin with," Humpty Dumpty interrupted: "there are plenty of hard words there. 'Brillig' means four o' clock in the afternoon--the time when you begin broiling things for dinner." "That'll do very well," said Alice: "and 'slithy'?" "Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy,' 'Lithe' is the same as 'active.' You see it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word." This is the first of several portmanteaus that Carroll used in "Jabberwocky." "I see it now," Alice remarked thoughtfully: "and what are 'toves'?" "Well, 'toves' are something like badgers--they're something like lizards--and they're something like corkscrews." "They must be very curious-looking creatures." "They are that," said Humpty Dumpty: "also they make their nests under sundials--also they live on cheese." "And what's to 'gyre' and to 'gimble'?" "To 'gyre' is to go round and round like a gyroscope.

To 'gimble' is to make holes like a gimlet." "And 'the wabe' is the grass-plot round a sun-dial, I suppose?" said Alice, surprised at her own ingenuity. "Of course it is. It's called 'wabe,' you know, because it goes a long way before it, and long way behind it--" "And a long way beyond it on each side," Alice added. "Exactly so. Well then,'mimsy' is 'flimsy and miserable' (there's another portmanteau for you). And a 'borogove' is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round--something like a live mop." "And then 'mome raths'?" said Alice. "I'm afraid I'm giving you a great deal of trouble." "Well, a 'rath'is a sort of green pig: but 'mome' I'm not certain about.

I think it's short for 'from home'--meaning that they'd lost their way, you know." "And what does 'outgrabe' mean?" "Well, 'outgribing' is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe--down in the wood yonder--and, when you've once heard it, you'll be quite content." (Carroll, The Annotated Alice, 270-2). Unfortuantely, this is where Humpty Dumpty, and Carroll, ends his interpretation. We can, however, by means of several methods determine what Carroll is likely to have meant by most of his nonsense words. The first of these methods is to consider what Carroll told confused readers. For example, in 1877 he wrote to Maud Standen, one of his child-friends, that "uffish" suggested to him "a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish and the temper huffish" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 196).

In the same letter he points out that "burble" can be created in the following manner: "If you take the three verbs 'bleat 'murmur,' and warble,'and select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes 'burble': though I am afraid I can't distinctly remember having made it in that way" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 196). Carroll also reused eight of the nonsense words for "Jabberwocky" in his nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark." One of these words, "frumious," is explained in the preface. ... take the two words "fuming" and "furious." Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak.

If your thoughts incline ever so little towards "fuming," you will say "fuming-furious"; if they turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards "furious," you will say "furious-fuming"; but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say "frumious" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 195). Several of Carroll's words have become so much a part of our language that they can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. In addition to several of the words defined by Humpty Dumpty, these include "galumph," which is defined as a combination of "gallop" and "triumphant" and means "to march on exultantly with irregular bounding movements" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 196), and "chortle" which is defined as a combination of "chuckle" and "snort" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 197). It is fairly safe to assume that these are the definitions that Carroll wanted attached to his words.

The final thing to be considered when attempting to find meaning in "Jabberwocky" is that Victorian culture was very different from that of today. Many of Carroll's words may seem like nonsense to us, but may have held more meaning for Victorians reading his book. For example, "whiffling," however unfamiliar it may seem to us today is actually not a Carrollian word at all. The generally accepted meaning during the 1800s was in reference "to blowing unsteadily in short puffs, hence it came to be a slang term for being variable and evasive" (Gardner, The Annotated Alice, 196). "Snicker-snack," is another word which would have been more familiar to Carroll's contemporaries than it is to us. It is probably related to "snicker-snee," an old word which could be used either as a noun, to mean a large knife, or as a verb, to mean fighting done with such a knife (Gardner, More Annotated Alice, 178). The final example of this type is the father's frabjous chortling of "Callooh!

Callay!" Most likely, Carroll had in mind two forms of the word kalos, which in Greek can mean "beautiful," "good," or "fair," and which would have been pronounced "Callooh" and "Callay" (Gardner, More Annotated Alice, 178). It is important to note that although without detailed explanation it is difficult to decipher the meaning of the poem, it is still clearly recognizable as being written in English. Carroll used several techniques to keep "Jabberwocky" from becoming complete nonsense. The first, and most basic, technique used is that all of Carroll's manufactured words look as if they could be real. The vowel and consonant combinations appear genuine and are easily pronounced, unlike, for example, the Gryphon's exclamation, "Hjckrrh!" in Wonderland which could not be mistaken for an actual English word (Beverly Lyon Clark "Carroll's Well Versed Narrative: Through the Looking-Glass" Critical Views 130). The second technique that Carroll used was to make most of his nonsense words nouns and adjectives with comparatively few nonsense verbs (Richard Kelly, Lewis Carroll, 57).

This allows us to understand, as Alice puts it, that "somebody, killed something," as the actions being performed are clear, even if who or what is doing them is not. The third, and final, technique that Carroll used to keep his poems from becoming meaningless is the fact that he used the sound of his words rather than the meaning of the words to express the meaning of the poem. For example, such harsh words as "vorpal," "snicker-snack," and "galumph," serve to heighten the tension of "Jabberwocky" just as similar sounding non-nonsense words might do in any other poem ("Jabberwocky" Fr. The World's Best Poetry on CD 6). Another technique that Carroll uses to make Jabberwocky intelligible is his placement of the words in the sentences. Actually this is two-fold. Carroll uses the placement of his words in their sentences to tell us their meanings, and the words placement within the sentences reveal their meanings. This is because, while it is not possible to tell whether a word such as "brillig" is an noun, verb, or adjective.

Sentences such as "Look at that brillig," "I brillig every night before I go to bed," and "What a brillig cat that is" are all sound equally correct (and non-sensical). It is only from its placement in the sentence that we can determine how it functions within the sentence. It is immediately clear why this is when we remove all of Carroll's nonsense words from the first to lines of "Jabberwocky:" "Twas [blank] and the [blank] [blanks] did [blank] and [blank] in the [blank]." The first blank is describing how it was, so "brillig" must be an adjective. The second two blanks appear to work as a group, and since they are both preceded by a "the," we can assume that the "rath" is a noun, and "mome" is the adjective which describes it. Similarly, the final blank, "wabe," also preceded by a definite article, must be a noun. The remaining two blanks, "gyre" and "gimble," must be verbs because they follow "did," which is generally followed by a verb or two in situations such as this.

It is in this manner that we are able to use our ingrained knowledge of the English language to help us understand what is happening in "Jabberwocky." Carroll knew this, and arranged his words in a way which would facilitate this type of subconscious analysis. Copyright 1997 by Cathy Dean . Permission granted for reproduction for academic uses. If you cite, link, or use this article, please e-mail me to let me know. In Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky", who or what is the jabberwock? | eNotes In Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky", who or what is the jabberwock? caledon | High School Teacher | (Level 3) Senior Educator Posted on November 8, 2013 at 9:07 PM "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem contained within the text of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass". The poem describes the hero's father warning him to avoid various dangerous creatures, but the hero takes his sword, seeks out the Jabberwock, kills it, and returns home with its head, to his father's great joy.

The poem is characterized by the use of numerous nonsensical or "made-up" words which have no inherent meaning, but convey images of danger, onomatopeia, and various other descriptive qualities. It is not entirely clear what the Jabberwock is; the poem describes it as having "jaws that bite" and "claws that catch" as well as "eyes of flame". It is also described as "whiffling" in its motion and "burbling" as it does so, but these are nonsense words, which based on the tone of the poem are clearly intended to be great and terrible traits for a creature to possess. John Tenniel provided an illustration of the Jabberwock; it is attached below. Note, however, that based on the description above, the appearance of the creature is highly open to interpretation; it may be a normal animal, or it may even be an allegorical "monster" such as jealousy or doubt.

Images: Jabberwocky - Alice-in-Wonderland.net Alice-in-wonderland.net One of the most famous poems from the Alice books is “Jabberwocky”: `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. `Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!’ He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought — So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. `And has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy. `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. The poem makes a lot of use of ‘portmanteaus’: a word that is made up of other words. How and when Jabberwocky was written Dodgson made up the poem long before he published it in “Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there”. The first verse was also made up years before the rest of the poem. The first stanza of the poem originally appeared in a 1855 edition of Mischmasch, a periodical that Carroll wrote and illustrated himself as a boy, for the amusement of his family. Carroll called it “Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry”.

The meaning of the words was a little different from those in “Through the Looking Glass”: “It was evening, and the smooth active badgers were scratching and boring holes in the hill-side, all unhappy were the parrots and the grave turtles squeaked out.” Dodgson added the other verses a few years later during a verse-making game with his cousins. The individual words originally meant the following: “Bryllig”: (derived from the verb to bryl or broil). “the time of broiling dinner, i.e. the close of the afternoon” “Slythy”: (compounded of ‘slimy’ and ‘lithe’). “smooth and active” “Tove”: a species of Badger. They had smooth white hair, long hind legs, and short horns like a stag. lived chiefly on cheese.

“Gyre”: verb (derived from ‘gyaour’ or ‘glaour’, “a dog”) “to scratch like a dog.” “Gymble”: (whence ‘gimblet’) to screw out holes in anything “Wabe”: (derived from the verb to ‘swab’ or ‘soak’) “the side of a hill” (from it’s being soaked by the rain) “Mimsy”: (whence ‘mimserable’ and ‘miserable’) ” unhappy” “Borogove”: an extinct kind of Parrot. They had no wings, beaks turned up, made their nests under sun-dials and lived on veal. “Mome”: (hence ‘solemome’ ‘solemone’ and ‘solemn’) “grave” “Rath”: a species of land turtle. Head erect, mouth like a shark, the front [crossed out] fore, legs curved out so that the animal walked on its knees, smooth green body, lived on swallows and oysters.

“Outgrabe”: past tense of the verb to ‘outgribe’ (it is connected with the old verb to ‘grike’ or ‘shrike’, from which are derived “shriek” and “creak.”) “squeaked” (source: The Annotated Alice, Martin Gardner, 1960) Other explanations of the words When publishing the complete poem in ‘Through the Looking Glass’, Carroll had Humpty Dumply explain it to Alice. Humpty Dumpty tells her the words mean the following: “Brillig”: four o’clock in the afternoon — the time when you begin broiling things for dinner. “Slithy”: lithe and slimy. ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active’. “Toves”: curious creatures that are something like badgers, something like lizards, and something like corkscrews. They make their nests under sun-dials and live on cheese. “To gyre”: to go round and round like a gyroscope. “To gimble”: to make holes like a gimblet. “Wabe”: the grass-plot round a sun-dial.

It is called like that because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it. And a long way beyond it on each side. “Mimsy”: flimsy and miserable “Borogove”: a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round; something like a live mop. “Mome rath”: a ‘rath’ is a sort of green pig. Humpty Dumpty is not certain about the meaning of ‘mome’, but thinks it’s short for “from home”; meaning that they’d lost their way. “To outgrabe”: ‘outgribing’ is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle. Carroll was often asked to explain the poem further. In a letter to child friend Maud Standen (1877) he wrote: “I am afraid I can’t explain ‘vorpal blade’ for you – nor yet ‘tulgey wood’, but I did make an explanation once for ‘uffish thought’! It seemed to suggest a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish.

Then again, as to ‘burble’ if you take the three verbs ‘bleat, murmur, and warble‘ then select the bits I have underlined, it certainly makes ‘burble’ though I am afraid I can’t distinctly remember having made it in that way.” In the preface of ‘The Hunting of the Snark’, Carroll also explains of which words the word ‘frumious’ consists: “[T]ake the two words ‘fuming’ and ‘furious’. Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards ‘fuming’, you will say ‘fuming-furious’; if they turn, by even a hair’s breadth, towards ‘furious’, you will say ‘furious-fuming’; but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say ‘fruminous’. “ According to Martin Gardner in his ‘Annotated Alice’ (the 150th anniversary deluxe edition, page 181), the word ‘whiffling’ is not a Carrolian word.

It had a variety of meanings in his time, but usually referred to ‘blowing unsteadily in short puffs’, and therefore it became a slang term for being variable and evasive. In an earlier century ‘whiffling’ meant smoking and drinking. ‘Tum-tum’ apparantly was Victorian slang for the sound of a stringed instrument, when monotonously strummed. The word ‘burble’ had long been used in England as a variant of ‘bubble’. Also, the word meant ‘to perplex, confuse, or muddle’. ‘Snickersnee’ is an old word for a large knife, and also means ‘to fight with a large knife’. Also the word ‘beamish’ was not invented by Carroll. The Oxford English Dictionary traces it back to 1530 as a variant of ‘beaming’, meaning ‘shining brightly, radiant’. Carroll’s made-up word ‘galumphing’ has entered the Oxford English Dictionary. It is attributed to Carroll and is defined as a combination of ‘gallop’ and ‘triumphant’, meaning ‘to march on exultantly with irregular bounding movements’.

Also the word ‘chortled’ made its way into this dictionary, where it is defined as ‘a blend of chuckle and snort’. Pronunciation In the preface to ‘Through the Looking Glass’, Carroll also gave some instructions for the pronunciation of the words: “The new words, in the poem Jabberwocky (see p. 202), have given rise to some differences of opinion as to their pronunciation: so it may be well to give instructions on that point also. Pronounce ‘slithy’ as if it were the two words ‘sly, the’: make the ‘g’ hard in ‘gyre’ and ‘gimble’: and pronounce ‘rath’ to rhyme with ‘bath’.” In his preface to ‘The Hunting of the Snark’, Carroll writes: “The ‘i’ in ‘slithy’ is long, as in ‘writhe’; and ‘toves’ is pronounced so as to rhyme with ‘groves’. Again, the first ‘o’ in ‘borogoves’ is pronounced like the ‘o’ in ‘borrow’. I have heard people try to give it the sound of the ‘o’ in ‘worry’.

Such is Human Perversity.”. This word is also often being mispronounced or misspelled as ‘borogroves’ Is Jabberwocky a parody? It is unclear whether ‘Jabberwocky’ is a parody of an earlier poem. Roger Green suggests that Carroll may have had in mind a long German ballad called ‘The Shepherd of the Giant Mountains’ (London Times Literary Supplement, March 1, 1957, and The Lewis Carroll Handbook, 1962). The ballad tells the story of how a young shepherd slays a monstrous Griffin. Carroll’s cousin, Manella Bute, translated this poem and published it in ‘Sharpe’s London Magazin’ (March 7 and 21, 1846). The similarity between the ballad and ‘Jabberwocky’ is not very clear. According to Green, it is ‘much in the feeling and the atmosphere; the parody is of general style and outlook’. © Alice-in-Wonderland.net

Question: Which imaginary creature was described by Lewis Carroll as with jaws that bite and claws that catch?
Answer: THE JABBERWOCKY